Born in 1896, in Sylhet district (now in Bangladesh), Swami Sivananda practices yoga every day and eats food without oil and spices. For the last 50 years, he has been serving 400-600 leprosy-affected beggars by arranging food, clothes and other essentials for them in Puri. In an earlier interview, he said he owed his age to "yoga, discipline and celibacy".